1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for handling cards, including cards known as xe2x80x9cplaying cards.xe2x80x9d In particular, the invention relates to an electromechanical machine for organizing or arranging playing cards into a plurality of hands, wherein each hand is formed as a selected number of randomly arranged cards.
2. Background of the Art
Wagering games based on the outcome of randomly generated or selected symbols are well known. Such games are widely played in gaming establishments such as casinos and the wagering games include card games wherein the symbols comprise familiar, common playing cards. Card games such as twenty-one or blackjack, poker and variations of poker and the like are excellent card games for use in casinos. Desirable attributes of casino card games are that the games are exciting, they can be learned and understood easily by players, and they move or are played rapidly to a wager-resolving outcome.
From the perspective of players, the time the dealer must spend in shuffling diminishes the excitement of the game. From the perspective of casinos, shuffling time reduces the number of hands placed, reduces the number of wagers placed and resolved in a given amount of time, thereby reducing revenue. Casinos would like to increase the amount of revenue generated by a game without changing games, particularly a popular game, without making obvious changes in the play of the game that affect the hold of the casino, and without increasing the minimum size of wagers. One approach to speeding play is directed specifically to the fact that playing time is decreased by shuffling and dealing events. This approach has lead to the development of electromechanical or mechanical card shuffling devices. Such devices increase the speed of shuffling and dealing, thereby increasing playing time. Such devices also add to the excitement of a game by reducing the time the dealer or house has to spend in preparing to play the game.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,513,969 (Samsel, Jr.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,515,367 (Howard) disclose automatic card shufflers. The Samsel, Jr. patent discloses a card shuffler having a housing with two wells for receiving stacks of cards. A first extractor selects, removes and intermixes the bottommost card from each stack and delivers the intermixed cards to a storage compartment. A second extractor sequentially removes the bottommost card from the storage compartment and delivers it to a typical shoe from which the dealer may take it for presentation to the players. The Howard patent discloses a card mixer for randomly interleaving cards including a carriage supported ejector for ejecting a group of cards (approximately two playing decks in number) which may then be removed manually from the shuffler or dropped automatically into a chute for delivery to a typical dealing shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,712 (Lorber et al.) discloses an automatic shuffling apparatus designed to intermix multiple decks of cards under the programmed control of a computer. The Lorber et al. apparatus is a carousel-type shuffler having a container, a storage device for storing shuffled playing cards, a removing device and an inserting device for intermixing the playing cards in the container, a dealing shoe and supplying means for supplying the shuffled playing cards from the storage device to the dealing shoe.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,453 (Stevens et al.) discloses an apparatus for automatically shuffling cards. The Stevens et al. machine includes three contiguous magazines with an elevatable platform in the center magazine only. Unshuffled cards are placed in the center magazine and the spitting rollers at the top of the magazine spit the cards randomly to the left and right magazines in a simultaneous cutting and shuffling step. The cards are moved back into the center magazine by direct lateral movement of each shuffled stack, placing one stack on top of the other to stack all cards in a shuffled stack in the center magazine. The order of the cards in each stack does not change in moving from the right and left magazines into the center magazine.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,897,954 (Erickson et al.) discloses the concept of delivering cards one at a time, into one of a number vertically stacked card shuffling compartments. The Erickson patent also discloses using a logic circuit to determine the sequence for determining the delivery location of a card, and that a card shuffler can be used to deal stacks of shuffled cards to a player. U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,140 (Huen) discloses a card dispenser which dispenses or deals cards in four discrete directions onto a playing surface, and U.S. Pat. No. 793,489 (Williams), U.S. Pat. No. 2,001,918 (Nevius), U.S. Pat. No. 2,043,343 (Warner) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,312,473 (Friedman et al.) disclose various card holders some of which include recesses (e.g., Friedman et al.) to facilitate removal of cards. U.S. Pat. No. 2,950,005 (MacDonald) and U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,670 (Cassady et al.) disclose card sorting devices which require specially marked cards, clearly undesirable for gaming and casino play.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,770,421 (Hoffman) discloses a card shuffling device including a card loading station with a conveyor belt. The belt moves the lowermost card in a stack onto a distribution elevator whereby a stack of cards is accumulated on the distribution elevator. Adjacent to the elevator is a vertical stack of mixing pockets. A microprocessor preprogrammed with a finite number of distribution schedules sends a sequence of signals to the elevator corresponding to heights called out in the schedule. Each distribution schedule comprises a preselected distribution sequence which is fixed as opposed to random. Single cards are moved into the respective pocket at that height. The distribution schedule is either randomly selected or schedules are executed in sequence. When the microprocessor completes the execution of a single distribution cycle, the cards are removed a stack at a time and loaded into a second elevator. The second elevator delivers cards to an output reservoir. Thus, the Hoffman patent requires a two step shuffle, i.e., a program is required to select the order in which stacks are loaded and moved onto the second elevator and delivers a shuffled deck or decks. The Hoffman patent does not disclose randomly selecting a location within the vertical stack for delivering each card. Nor does the patent disclose a single stage process which randomly delivers hands of shuffled cards with a degree of randomness satisfactory to casinos and players. Further, there is no disclosure in the Hoffman patent about how to deliver a preselected number of cards to a preselected number of hands ready for use by players or participants in a game. Another card handling apparatus with an elevator is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,683,085 (Johnson et al.). U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,743 (Nicoletti) discloses a playing card dispenser including an inclined surface and a card pusher for urging cards down the inclined surface.
Other known card shuffling devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,778,644 (Stephenson), U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,488 (Plevyak et al.), U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,807,884 and 5,275,411 (both Breeding) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,695,189 (Breeding et al.). The Breeding patents disclose machines for automatically shuffling a single deck of cards including a deck receiving zone, a carriage section for separating a deck into two deck portions, a sloped mechanism positioned between adjacent corners of the deck portions, and an apparatus for snapping the cards over the sloped mechanism to interleave the cards.
The Breeding single deck shufflers used in connection with LET IT RIDE(copyright) Stud Poker are programmed to first shuffle a deck of cards, and then sequentially deliver hands of a preselected number for each player. LET IT RIDE(copyright) stud poker is the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,288,081 and 5,437,462 (Breeding), which are herein incorporated by reference. The Breeding single deck shuffler delivers three cards from the shuffled deck in sequence to a receiving rack. The dealer removes the first hand from the rack. Then, the next hand is automatically delivered. The dealer inputs the number of players, and the shuffler deals out that many hands plus a dealer hand. The Breeding single deck shufflers are capable of shuffling a single deck and delivering seven player hands plus a dealer hand in approximately 60 seconds. The Breeding shuffler is a complex electromechanical device which requires tuning and adjustment during installation. The shufflers also require periodic adjustment. The Breeding et al. device, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,068,258; 5,695,189; and 5,303,921 are directed to shuffling machines for shuffling multiple decks of cards with three magazines wherein unshuffled cards are cut then shuffled. Although the devices disclosed in the preceding patents, particularly the Breeding machines, provide improvements in card shuffling devices, none discloses or suggests a device and method for providing a plurality of hands of cards, wherein the hands are ready for play and wherein each comprises a randomly selected arrangement of cards, without first randomly shuffling the entire deck. A device and method which provides a plurality of ready-to-play hands of a selected number of randomly arranged cards at a greater speed than known devices without shuffling the entire deck or decks would speed and facilitate the casino play of card games.
The present invention provides an electromechanical card handling apparatus and method for creating or generating a plurality of hands of cards from a group of unshuffled cards wherein each hand contains a predetermined number of randomly selected or arranged cards. The apparatus and, thus, the card handling method or process, is controlled by a programmable microprocessor and may be monitored by a plurality of sensors and limit switches. While the card handling apparatus and method of the present invention is well suited for use in the gaming environment, particularly in casinos, the apparatus and method may find use in homes, card clubs, or for handling or sorting sheet material generally.
In one embodiment an apparatus provides for moving playing cards from a first group of unshuffled cards into shuffled hands of cards, wherein at least one and usually all of the hands contains a random arrangement or random selection of a preselected number of cards. The apparatus comprises a card receiver for receiving the first group of cards, a generally vertical stack of horizontally disposed card-receiving compartments generally adjacent to the card receiver(the vertical stack generally is vertically movable), an elevator for raising and lowering the stack, a card-moving mechanism between the card receiver and the stack for moving cards, one at a time, from the card receiver to a selected card-receiving compartment, and a microprocessor that controls the card-moving mechanism and the elevator so that each card in the group of unshuffled cards is placed randomly into one of the card-receiving compartments. Sensors monitor and may trigger at least certain operations of the apparatus, including activities of the the microprocessor, card moving mechanisms, security monitoring, and the elevator. The controlling microprocessor, including software, randomly selects or identifies which slot or card-receiving compartment will receive each card in the group before card-handling operations begin. For example, a card designated as card 1 may be directed to a slot 5 (numbered here by numeric position within an array of slots), a card designated as card 2 may be directed to slot 7, a card designated as card 3 may be directed to slot 3, etc.
A feature of the present invention is that it provides a programmable card handling machine with a display and appropriate inputs for adjusting the machine to any of a number of games wherein the inputs include a number of cards per hand selector, a number of hands delivered selector and a trouble-shooting input. Additionally, there may be an elevator speed adjustment and sensor to accommodate or monitor the position of the elevator as cards wear or become bowed or warped. These features also provide for interchangeability of the apparatus, meaning the same apparatus can be used for many different games and in different locations thereby reducing the number of back-up machines or units required at a casino. The display may include a game mode or game selected display, and use a cycle rate and/or hand count monitor and display for determining or monitoring the usage of the machine.
Another feature of the present invention is that it provides an electromechanical playing card handling apparatus for more rapidly generating multiple random hands of playing cards as compared to known devices. The preferred device completes a cycle in approximately 30 seconds, which is double the speed of the Breeding single deck shuffler disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,884, which has itself achieved significant commercial success. Although some of the groups of playing cards (including player and dealer hands and discarded or unused cards) arranged by the apparatus in accordance with the method of the present invention may contain the same number of cards, the cards within any one group or hand are randomly selected and placed therein. Other features of the invention include a reduction of set up time, increased reliability, lower maintenance and repair costs, and a reduction or elimination of problems such as card counting, possible dealer manipulation and card tracking. These features increase the integrity of a game and enhancing casino security.
Yet another feature of the card handling apparatus of the present invention is that it converts a single deck of unshuffled cards into a plurality of hands ready for use in playing a game. The hands converted from the single deck of cards are substantially completely random, i.e., the cards comprising each hand are randomly placed into that hand. To accomplish this random distribution, a preferred embodiment of the apparatus includes a number of vertically stacked, horizontally disposed card-receiving compartments one above another into which cards are inserted, one at a time, until an entire group of cards is distributed. In this preferred embodiment, each card-receiving compartment is filled (filled to the assigned number of cards for a hand, and with the residue of cards being fed into the discard compartment, for example), regardless of the number of players participating in a particular game. For example, when the card handling apparatus is being used for a seven player game, seven player compartments, a dealer compartment and one compartment for cards not used in forming the random hands to be used in the seven player game are filled. After the last card from the unshuffled group is delivered, the hands are ready to be removed from the compartments and put into play, either manually, automatically, or with a combined automatic feed and hand removal.
The device can also be readily adapted for games that deal a hand or hands only to the dealer, such as David Sklansky""s Hold xe2x80x98Em Challenge(trademark) poker game, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,025.
One type of device of the present invention may include jammed card detection and recovery features, and may include recovery procedures operated and controlled by the microprocessor.
Generally, the operation of the card handling apparatus of the present invention will form a fixed number of hands of cards corresponding to the maximum number of players at a table, plus a dealer hand (if there is a dealer playing in the game), plus a discard pile. For a typical casino table having seven player stations, the device of the present invention would preferably have nine compartments (if there are seven players and a dealer) or eight compartments (if there are seven players and no dealer playing in the game), wherein each of seven player compartments contains the same number of cards. Depending upon the nature of the game, the compartments for the dealer hand may have the same or different number of cards as the seven compartments, and the discard compartment may contain the same or different number of cards as the player compartments and/or the dealer compartment, if there is a dealer compartment. Most preferably, the device is programmed to deliver hands until the dealer (whether playing in the game or operating as a house dealer) presses an input button. The dealer input tells the microprocessor that the last hand has been delivered (to the players or to the players and dealer), and then the remaining cards in the compartments (excess player compartments and/or discard compartment and/or excess card compartment) will be unloaded into the output or discard compartment. The discard, excess or unused card hand (i.e., the cards placed in the discard compartment or slot) may contain more cards and, thus, the discard compartment may be larger than the other compartments. In a preferred embodiment, the discard compartment is located in the middle of the generally vertically arranged stack of compartments.
Another feature is that the apparatus of the present invention may provide for the initial top feeding or top loading of an unshuffled group of cards, thereby facilitating use by the dealer. The hand receiving portion of the machine may also facilitate use by the dealer, by having cards displayed or provided so that a dealer is able to conveniently remove a randomized hand from the upper portion of the machine or from a tray or platform extending from the machine to expose the cards to a vertical or nearly vertical access (within 0 to 30 or 50xc2x0 of horizontal, for example) by the dealer""s hand.
An additional feature of the card handling apparatus of the present invention is that it facilitates and significantly speeds the play of casino wagering games, particularly those games calling for a certain, fixed number if cards per hand (e.g., Caribbean Stud(copyright), Let It Ride(copyright), Pai Gow Poker, Tres Card(trademark) poker, Three Card Pokerg(copyright), Hold xe2x80x98Em Challenge(copyright) poker, stud poker games and the like), making the games more exciting and less tedious for players, and more profitable for casinos. The device of the present invention is believed to deliver random hands at an increased speed compared to other shufflers, such as approximately twice the speed of known devices. In use, the apparatus of the present invention is operated to process playing cards from an initial, unshuffled or used group of cards into a plurality of hands, each hand containing the same number of randomly arranged cards. It should be understood that the term xe2x80x98unshuffledxe2x80x99 is a relative term. A deck is unshuffled a) when it is being recycled after play and b) after previous shuffling before a previous play of a game, as well as c) when a new deck is inserted into the machine without ever having been previously shuffled. The first step of this process is effected by the dealer placing the initial group of cards into the card receiver of the apparatus. The apparatus is started and, under the control of the integral microprocessor, assigns each card in the initial group to a compartment (randomly selecting compartments separately for each card), based on the selected number of hands, and a selected number of cards per hand. Each hand is contained in a separate compartment of the apparatus, and each is delivered (upon the dealer""s demand or automatically) by the apparatus from that compartment to a hand receiver or platform for the dealer to distribute it to a player. The number of hands created by the apparatus within each cycle is preferably selected to correspond to the maximum number of hands required to participate in a game (accounting for player hands, dealer hands, or house hands), and the number or quantity of cards per hand is programmable according to the game being played.
Each time a new group of unshuffled cards, hand shuffled cards, used cards or a new deck(s) of cards is loaded into the card receiver and the apparatus is activated, the operation of the apparatus involving that group of cards, i.e., the forming of that group of cards into hands of random cards, comprises a new cycle. Each cycle is unique and is effected by the microprocessor, which microprocessor is programmed with software to include random number generating capability. The software assigns a number to the each card and then randomly selects or correlates a compartment to each number. Under the control of the microprocessor, the elevator aligns the selected compartment with the card feed mechanism in order to receive the next card. The software then directs each numbered card to the selected slots by operating the elevator motor to position that slot to receive a card.
The present invention also describes a unique method and component of the system for aligning the feed of cards into respective compartments and for forming decks of randomly arranged cards. The separators between compartments may have an edge facing the direction from which cards are fed, that edge having two acute angled surfaces (away from parallelism with the plane of the separator) so that cards may be deflected in either direction (above/below, left/right, top/bottom) with respect to the plane of the separator. When there are already one or more cards within a compartment, such deflection by the edge of the separator may insert cards above or below the card(s) in the compartment. The component that directs, moves, and/or inserts cards into the compartments may be controllably oriented to direct a leading edge of each card towards the randomly selected edge of a separator so that the card is inserted in the randomly selected compartment and in the proper orientation (above/below, left/right, top/bottom) with respect to a separator, the compartments, and card(s) in the compartments.
The apparatus of the present invention is compact, easy to set up and program and, once programmed, can be maintained effectively and efficiently by minimally trained personnel who cannot affect the randomness of the card delivery. This means that the machines are more reliable in the field. Service costs are reduced, as are assembly costs and set up costs. The preferred device also has fewer parts, which should provide greater reliability than known devices.
Another feature of the present invention is to have all compartments of equal size and fed into a final deck compartment so that the handling of the cards effects a shuffling of the deck, without creating actual hands for play by players and/or the dealer. The equipment is substantially similar, with the compartments that were previously designated as hands or discards, having the cards contained therein subsequently stacked to form a shuffled deck(s). Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more fully apparent and understood with reference to the following specification and to the appended drawings and claims.